6 Minutes, Please.

If you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, it doesn't matter. Please watch the first six minutes of this video. It is timely despite the fact that it is from an event that took place 45 years ago.

This is a video of Ronald Reagan addressing the 1964 Republican national convention. He was not the nominee. Pretend, for just the next six minutes, that you only know him as the actor and spokesperson for General Electric that he was at the time. That was how members of this audience knew him. Listen and think about what is being said.

Two years prior to this event Mr. Reagan switched from being a Democrat to a Republican. His address came to be known as the "Time for Choosing Speech" and marked the beginning of his political career.

At the time President Johnson was launching the Great Society initiative, marked by sharply increased social spending and the creation of Medicare.

The video is also a time capsule. You'll observe that in the way the audience is dressed and in Mr. Reagan's use of the terms "man" and "mankind" that suggest gender insensitivity if not discrimination. Regardless, the underlying message resounds.

Sources for this post include Wikipedia.